CMKb- integrating Australian customary medicinal plant knowledge with the framework of Atlas of Living Australia

Jitendra Gaikwad and Shoba Ranganathan Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia [email protected]

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Indigenous Australia

 Inhabitants for last 50,000 years (approx).

 Extensively used and relied on biological resources such as plants with medicinal properties.

 Australian Aboriginals possess vast knowledge of medicinal use of plants.

 Traditional knowledge passed from generation to generation orally.

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Indigenous Medicinal Knowledge

 Major drug discoveries based on native medicinal plant knowledge

Artemisia annua

– the antimalarial, Artemisinin from

Artemisia annua,

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has been used in China since 200 BC.

–

Duboisia

– (commonly called

Corkwood Tree

) used for the preparation of Buscopan ® for stomach pain 1.

Klayman DL. Qinghaosu (artemisinin): an antimalarial drug from China.

Science

1985;

228:

1049 –1055 3

Issues regarding Australian customary medicinal plant use

 Loss of valuable knowledge: oral tradition, death of elders.

 No estimate of how many customary medicinal plants are used in Australia.

 Data is fragmented and represents only a fraction of the known flora.

 Data integration issues, especially data available in different formats.

 Unavailability of Standards, Schema and Ontology 4

Online medicinal plant databases

1. Prelude Medicinal Plants Database (Africa)

http://www.metafro.be/prelude

2. Rain Tree (Amazon)

http://www.rain-tree.com/plants.htm

3. Brazilian medicinal plants database (Brazil)

http://www.brazilian-plants.com/en/

4. Chinese medicinal plants database (China)

http://www.chinese.botanicals.at/?lang=_en

5. Plants for a future (England)

http://www.pfaf.org/database/index.php

5. Encyclopedia of Indian Medicinal plants (India)

http://www.frlht.org.in/meta/

6. Foundation for Revitalisation of Local Health Traditions (India)

http://www.frlht.org.in/informatics.htm

7. Native American Ethnobotany database, University of Michigan (US)

http://herb.umd.umich.edu/

8.

Dr Duke’s Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical databases (US)

http://www.ars-grin.gov/duke/

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What is the solution? Needs…

• A single integrated multi disciplinary knowledgebase.

• Prototype for integrating, visualizing and analysing data on customary medicinal plants.

• Information resource for researchers, policy makers, students, and Aboriginal communities.

Biological assays Phytochemistry

• A single knowledgebase for holistic plant-derived discovery of therapeutics.

Biodiversity informatics

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Customary Medicinal Knowledgebase

http://biolinfo.org/cmkb

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Different components of CMKb

Chemical info Chemical name Chemical common name Extraction method CAS No Formula Chemical structure sequence Species info Family Scientific name Authority & Year Native name Common name Habit Habitat Synonyms Variety Bioactivity Assay type Assay used Endpoint Remarks Biogeography info Locality State Country Latitude Longitude CMKb Multimedia Format (Image/Audio/Video) Media name Media Author Media Contributor Description Medicinal info Parts used Used for Quantity Preparation method Application method Data Source Number (DSN) Title Reference type Reference language Author Publication year Reference name Volume Pages Publisher ISSN/ISBN Field Source Number (FDSN) Source name Age Sex Community affiliation Language Interview date Interview by Venue Remarks

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Data in CMKb

Primary data (Interviews)

    What are the medicinal plants used?

What part of the plant is used?

What is the preparation method? How it is used?

Secondary data (scientific literature)

     taxonomy phytochemistry bioactivity biogeography medicinal use and application 9

Handling IP issues

Primary data

• Ethics approval from MQ • Collaborative agreement with Aboriginal communities • Password protected • Information totally owned by communities • Scientific outcomes will be jointly shared

Secondary data

• Freely accessible 10

Significance of CMKb

 Addresses goals of the National research priorities.

– –

Sustainable use of Australia’s biodiversity.

Smart use of information.

 Protects and aids in knowledge conservation.

 Integration of multi-disciplinary studies.

 Can lead to novel drug discovery.

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Integrating CMKb with Atlas of Living Australia (ALA)

 Partial compliance with Darwin Core and Dublin Core.

 Use of APNI and Australian Plant Census as organizational framework for botanical data by ALA.

 Tools from ALA for analysis.

 Development of standard schemas and ontology for customary medicinal knowledge.

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Acknowledgment

 Macquarie University for MQRES scholarship  Supervisor and Co-supervisors@ MQ  Mrs Karen Wilson (Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney)  Mr David Harrington  Mr Varun Khanna  Mr Doan Le  Northern NSW Aboriginal communities (Yaegl)  Mr Vishwas Chavan (GBIF, Copenhagen)  Colleagues and friends at Macquarie University.

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Questions ?

Elders from Yaegl community, Maclean, Northern NSW, Australia.

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